24 Months of Hell
by Lopectin
Summary: I was 25 just finished my residency. I enlisted in the military as a way to serve to others not knowing the horrors that awaited me in the deserts.
1. Chapter 1

A man fell dead next to me.

I was crouched down leaning against a wall my heels had dug holes into the sand below me anchoring me while I gripped onto my M-16 tightly. I was incredibly sweaty my helmet made my head feel stuffy and my vest reached my chin in this position.

I stared down at the man who had just fallen. I was unsure if it was the bullet or fall that killed him first.

I slowly reach down to his neck searching for a pulse I knew I wouldn't find. I can't help but to think of how sorry I am for him. He might have been on my team, "We weren't prepared for this" I mumble. We had learned how to address situations like this with random squads every day. We would go through drills, that won't ever compare to the real thing.

Sighing I decide its time to move on as regretting won't bring any of them back.

After a bit of debate of where to go, I stand up, placing the man's dog tag in my pocket and slowly head north. Walking through the street would be way to obvious so I begin walking through what used to be a civilian home. I keep my gun ready to shoot anyone could be out there from what I gathered the about attack; it was a group of five or six snipers that got us during our training rounds and I never know if I could bump into one.

As I'm slowly walking through the house careful not to make any noise that would alert the enemy of my presence. I feel someone behind me, fear runs through my spine as I quickly assume the worst-case scenario; I quickly turn around to meet the scope of a gun.

The gun doesn't surprise me as much as the intense blue eyes of the man who is holding it. Due to the area that we were in I was expecting dark brown eyes along with dark skin. I drop my M-16 without a second thought it's now on the floor and my arms were at my sides as I cautiously looked at the man wearing the same military suit like me. His nametag has been removed just like mine has long before we came out to drill.

"Oh thank god it's just you", the man tells me as he lowers his rifle down giving me a cheeky grin that makes him look foxy and the whisker-like scars don't do him any more justice. He glances at my arm possibly looking at my badges. My eyebrows slant for a second at the statement, 'just you'. He gives off an aura that makes me feel instantly familiar with him just as he addresses me with much familiarity.

"You're a medic?" He asks inquiring about the bright red cross on my arm.

"Yeah." I instantly reply. Knowing that if anyone was injured they would alert me of it right away, but he doesn't he just smiles at me.

"Is there any more of your squad left?"

"No, I don't believe so"

"Hmm." He's giving me a look that says he was out there and saw the bodies of my squad, he understands.

"There are more of us, follow me." He quickly turns around and gives me a swift arm motion instructing me to follow him into the civilian house, we cross a couple of rooms before stop in what I could only conclude to be the living room of this household. It has a couple of couches old TV that is down laying on the floor broken as well as a couple of family photos the previous owners of the house probably didn't have time to pack for.

I'm so enchanted by a photo of two small children who used to live in the house that I don't even realize that the living room opens into a kitchen where there are several men in the room sitting down around the kitchen table looking at the radio. Their features are hard to distinguish as they are also still in full uniform with the helmet on like me.

Five heads quickly fixate onto the direction the man and I are standing next to. I'm hoping now is a more appropriate time to ask him for his name as we are safe at least for the moment.

The blonde is the first to speak before any of them question him about my arrival. "Oh sorry to keep you waiting for so long guys. Backup hasn't come in yet, but I found her outside, look, guys, she's a medic!"

As he is speaking I feel sweat trip down my temple under my helmet. I can feel all of the gazes on me especially the blondes who's standing right next to me. I take this as my cue to talk. "Ummm…" I don't remember how long it's been since I've felt this awkward about introducing myself. I had long been accustomed to this as it was part of my job. Looking around the room I decide the quicker I get it over with the better.

"I'm Sakura." I can't bring myself to say anything else with the given situation. It wasn't nice to meet them. We were in the middle of a fucking war and I was never trained on how to do this so for now just saying my name will be enough.

The blonde looks down on me giving me that friendly smile I saw when I first met him before declaring that his name was, Naruto. After that he took the closest empty seat to the group motioning for me to sit beside him.

There really was no one sitting next to me expect Naruto to my side and the rest of the guys were sitting in front of me giving me a better view as to what they looked like. What distinguished them from each other and made them an individual from a physical stance, as I still had to learn what personality traits made them different.

The man sitting next to Naruto suddenly speaks. "I'm Sasuke," he says. Sasuke has dark hair and eyes would be deemed normal if it wasn't for the sharpness of his feature making him look so pretty but before I can think anything else the introductions continue.

"Neji" This guy has white pupils and what seems to be, white irises as well. The closest thing I've recall ever learning about in med school that faintly resembles that was cataracts I'm suddenly very curious as to how this affects his vision. As it's obvious that he's not blind, but that will have to wait for another moment.

"Shino," Says a man with goggles. They would normally look silly but due to this the situation I have to hand it to him with all the sand blowing around they're probably pretty handy.

The last one to introduce himself to me is Shikamaru he has a very lazy sounding voice and plain Japanese features, pale skin, dark hair, and dark eyes. Even with him sitting the in the far back corner I see a glint in his eyes that lead me to suggest that he is a lot smarter than he seems.

I'm glancing around the room once again unsure of what to say. Millions of questions run through my mind, but I don't have a voice to ask them. I stare down at my lap taking into account how my uniform now looks.

It's splattered with blood from covering up wounds of my fellow squad mates. Blood is on my vest, and pants a have a bit on my arms. At this point I realize why they had been looking at me with such intensity. It looked like I had been through hell. 'But I am in hell' I thought to myself as I looked at the dry blood under my fingernails.

A rich deep voice reaches my ears before I can think anything else about my appearance. "What happened to your squad?" Glancing up I realize Sasuke. 'The pretty boy' I think to myself smiling for a millisecond.

"My squad was doing rounds before we got attacked. I got all of these blood stains from other soldiers who I was helping." I say hoping they're a bit more understanding of all of the blood that I was currently wearing.

"No, causalities?" Asks Neji

"Unfortunately, I saw several" I reply as I reach down my pack pulling out a couple of dog tags I was able to collect from the few soldiers I had reached.

It was around ten or fifteen dog tags that I had in my pockets and I can tell that the number of them scares them. None of the guys bother to say anything, they all suddenly seem to have a deep thoughtful stare as if they're realizing what we are all really into now.

"How did you guys end up here? " I ask to break the silence as I'm shyly placing the tags back in my vest. My gaze looks back and forth at them before Naruto speaks.

"Well, we were doing training rounds too! We had just split into six men groups when Shikamaru here got a message in his phone telling us to hide and the safe locations that were around."

It suddenly clicks as to why Naruto found me outside he was looking for other squads. It's quiet again only this time I don't bother trying to keep a conversation up.

All I can do is stare at my feet thinking about how tired I was. Looking up I realize that all of the other people had the same look in their faces. They were probably thinking about their family, friends, significant others.

My eyes land on Shikamaru who is looking at his phone waiting for any news. Since my arrival, we have only been here for about an hour. While I'm not sure how long they have been here for I pray to god that help will arrive soon.

God must have been listening because as soon as I wrapped that though up the phone rang. Sasuke was the first to take it quickly exiting into the living room. Which did strike me as very strange but no one in the group seemed to complain and so far from the atmosphere I could tell that they trusted each other a lot.

Those two minutes that I waited for seemed to run on forever. I could only hear murmurs from what I assume to be some kind of bedroom. When Sasuke does return his expression is as relaxed as I think it will ever be.

"The area is safe, they told us to stay where we were at for about an hour or less. They'll come fly us out of here soon", he cooly states at he removes his vest and then helmet showing off very rich black hair that normally wouldn't be allowed unless you're in the special forces.

"Thank God" exclaims Naruto. I can't help but to agree with him more as I unbuckle my vest smiling at the long-awaited news. As I remove my helmet as I look down at my boots which also have blood on them, reminding me of how lucky I was to not be one of the soldiers who left their blood out there today. I look up expecting the guys to be minding their own business when again I note that all eyes are on me.

"Uhh Sakura", says Shikamaru with a slight grin on his face.

"Why is your hair pink?!" I hear Naruto yell at me.

Wearing a helmet was probably the only reason why I was able to pull off not dying my hair blonde or something when training with my squad. I had long before decided I would dye it once I was placed into more terminate teams. I reach up to pat my head running my hand through my hair, "Oh, this is natural." I reply quickly knowing that I'd be lucky if they believed me.

I hear Neji cough to suggest that I'm lying. My eyebrows slant in slight anger as this was an all too similar situation. To my surprise the only person who didn't say a word since introduced himself spoke up. "I noticed that your eyebrows and lashes were pink too. It must be a rare pigmentation."

My eyes widen at Shinos statement before I break out a smile at him. "Yeah." I quickly agree. I see that the guys believe me now and they seemed to be accepting of this.

"That's so cool Sakura!" Naruto says giving me once again that warm friendly smile and I can't help but to smile back at him and all of the guys sitting around the table. Even Sasuke who after these few hours with I decide that he's probably too arrogant for his own good even if he didn't say much. Actions do speak louder than words.

After a few second my smile grows even larger as I hear the faint sound of a helicopter above us.


	2. Chapter 2

The hospital I was stationed was one of the worst I had been in my entire life we didn't have nearly enough supplies to treat our wounded and beds were very limited. I worked twelve-hour shifts with lousy six-hour breaks in between.

I was currently on my last two hours of my shift and my body could not take in enough caffeine to keep myself awake. I was leaning against the countertop at the nurses' station lazily watching one of the nurses type up what I assume to be a patient report. As she was doing this I tried really hard to resist the urge to yawn but it was almost impossible to do. Once I had yawned the nurse who was typing, with pretty blonde hair and brown eyes, casted me an apologetic look.

"Sorry about that." My hand was at my mouth with a silly smile adoring my face. After a few second I sat down next to the nurse at the computer. After adjusting my doctors coat, I decided that I had enough time to check my email.

The nurse who's tag read 'Cindy' looked over at my screen for a brief second before asking "Waiting for an email Doctor?"

"No not really." I replied. While it would be nice for my family and friends to constantly email me they didn't; they preferred letters as at one point after basic I commented on how nice it was to receive a physical letter from someone rather than just an email. They had taken it as a hint to only send me letters, which despite the time it took for me to receive was my favorite form of communication with them.

With one hand at my mouse and the other supporting my head I was leaning against the countertop reading emails when a particular email caught my eye. It was titled "CHANGE OF BASE" I opened it almost immediately quickly reading it.

MSgt Sakura Haruno,

Due to recent changes in departments you will be now be stationed at Camp Rhino. Please make the necessary adjustments for your departure. Travel information will be linked below.

"Oh. My. God." I could not believe what I had just read. This wasn't making any sense to me. Why was I was going to leave this run down hospital that was lacking doctors. Were there going to be replacement doctors here? Millions of questions instantly ran though my mind regarding this change.

I must have screamed when I read my email because the second I looked up I saw several nurses and a fellow doctor looking at me all with concerned faces.

"Doctor, I asked you if everything was okay?" A nurse with curly hair repeated to me.

"Uhhh,..yeah." My answer didn't satisfy them as they were still giving me the same concerned glances. At that moment I decided that my best option was to lie.

So I tried again "I just got a really bad leg cramp and the pain scared me."

A tried to suppress a grin when I saw the curly haired nurse roll her eyes and turn around to walk away with the other nurses following her down the hallway. Dr. Sato frowned before speaking "Haruno, get your act together." I had to resist the urge to talk back.

"Doctor Haruno?" My head quickly turned to the side where the nurse I was sitting next to had read probably read the email.

"How much did you read?"

"Sorry I read all of it."

Leaning back on the chair I sighed picking out my words carefully for her. "Its okay, lets just keep this between us." Cindy gave me a genuine smile.

"Of course Doctor"

Now that the cat was out of the bag with her and seeing that I my last rounds didn't start for another 20minutes I decided I had enough time to quickly read over my travel details before printing off my last patient chart of the day.

I was currently working on my last patient before finishing my shift and heading off to some much needed sleep. My relocation of base was very startling news that woke me of at the end of the shift but right before my rounds began fatigue was starting to set in again. That email had been sent out three weeks ago leaving me a week before I moved out.

"Well Mr. Smith you seem to be stable enough for us to fly you out to Germany where you can receive proper care." I said giving my patient a soft smile. Jack Smith was only 19 fresh out of school, full of potential, until a bomb took off his legs. He always seemed to be happy despite his current situation, with an appearance matched his attitude, it was bright with his blonde hair and green eyes.

I struggled with patients who lost body limbs, like Jack, because I had enough knowledge and skills to save there limbs most of the times. I was just lacking supplies and equipment, this really wrecked me inside and I often debated on letting the patient know that piece of information. In the end I never told them. After the attack on my squad I had come into more realistic terms of what I was in. I was in war but that didn't make this any easier.

As I was walking out of the room and clocking out my mind couldn't keep from wandering to the events of the attack. No official death count had been published or summary. I do know that there were several others who had survived but most of my squad had been killed.

The guys who I ended up with had vanished just as quickly as they came. Our rescue was so quick and we were all too tired to exchange any information. I don't think that I'll ever see them again.

The days went by very quickly and next thing I knew I was checking into Camp Rhino. At the hospital I was given a bed in the barracks and at Camp Rhino much to my surprise I had a dorm style apartment I could tell that this particular apartment wasn't just for any kind of soldier. Which lead me to further question my position here. I was informed upon arrival that I was going to serving as a field medic. The particular department I was now in, had requested a doctor rather than just a medic for their squad, which did strike me as odd, the hospital I had been working at lacked staff. Out here doctors were scarce so there had to be a very big reason for my change of position.

After organizing my stuff in my new apartment (which wasn't really much just two bags). I figured it would be better if I dyed my hair blonde today so when I met my team tomorrow I wouldn't have to worry about it. Having pink hair always drew unwanted attention that I managed to overcome. I had once sported it long but upon entering the marines it was very clear to me that I would have to dye it.

It wasn't often that I was able to wear civilian clothing so I took the opportunity to slip into my jeans and flip-flops as soon as I had it. I didn't do my laundry before moving so I slipped on a long sleeve t-shirt with the red cross on my arm signaling that I was medic. It was one of the many shirts I got during medic training. Which I was required to attend even though I had just finished my residency days before.

Since this area always had combat going on near by I decided not to test waters so I placed my chin length choppy hair in a plain tan baseball cap before heading off to the shopping market in the camp.

The only place where you could buy goods in the camp was at a small convenience store located near the entrance of the military barracks. Why they allowed soldiers to dye there hair as they please completely boggled my mind. They were very minimalistic when it came to those aspects of society but I wasn't going to complain about it with my given situation.

It took me no time to pick out a blonde dye and pay for it. Upon exciting the shop I noticed a crowd recently formed. I curiously approached it. As I was walking toward it I heard screaming and then I saw the last two people I was expecting to see, two boys, one with blonde hair and the other with black hair, Naruto and Sasuke.

"Bastard I told you that if you took my target I was going to kick you ass!"

"Idiot, if I hadn't incepted when I did your target would have gotten away"

Wondering what it was about I got closer to the front where I could see them more clearly. A chubby brown haired man next to me startled me when out of nowhere he began to speak, "These two always have such great fights good thing they fight about everything."

Glancing up at him I noticed he casually had a bag of chips in his hand that he was eating, how odd.

"Oh do they?" I commented.

"You must be new, everyone knows that they always fight I'm amazed they haven't been court-martialed yet"

I was surprised that he had noticed that I was new right away; he was after all the first person I had talked to. 'Did I really stick out that much even with my hair covered?' I thought to myself.

"Yeah that would be unfortunate." I said after a few seconds returning my attention to the fight.

Now they were throwing a couple punches at each other, saying a few insulting comments.

"You punch me like a girl"

"At least I don't look like a girl you bastard."

I did have to admit they were both great at hand-to-hand combat. You could easily tell that they had years of martial arts below their belts on top of their military training. These guys had been training to fight most of their lives and I didn't know how to feel about that.

I glanced up at the overweight man next to me for a second, which he noticed.

"My name is Choji" He said

"Sakura" I replied with a soft smile holding my hand out to him which he quickly shook with out a hesitation before commenting.

"Medic huh? Good we've been short on them."

This wasn't really new information to me. Everyone was short on medics. "Yeah, I'm sure there are several new ones around."

I was about to ask Choji if he could tell me where the dinning hall was at before I noticed him moving aside at a speed that a man his size would normally not have and then I felt a body hit mine throwing me on the ground where the two idiots were fighting.

Ouch.

All I could do was cover my head securing my hat on me; the last thing I wanted was to make a bigger scene with my ridiculously colored hair.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry!"

"Are you okay?"

"Bastard you should have moved!"

"Idiot, like I could control where I was falling."

I was laying on the floor face down before I directed my gaze upwards to see Naruto with a very concerned look reaching down to help me up and Sasuke with sand on the side of his uniform, 'Well I guess I knew who took me down.' I grimly thought.

"Yeah I'm fine", I said quickly sitting up taking Naruto's hand to help me stand up. As Naruto was pulling me up I noticed his eyes widened.

"SAKURA!, Look bastard its Sakura!" Naruto yelled pointing at me, making me feel slightly awkward.

I glanced at Sasuke offering him a soft smile to acknowledge him, which he did not return, smug bastard.

"Sorry I hit you. Are you alright?" He asked me with an unconcerned and unapologetic voice.

"Yeah."

Looking around I noticed that the crowd was starting to dwindle as the people realized that the fight had ended. There was one man who rather than leaving, like everyone else approached us. I figured they were Naruto's and Sasuke's friend as I didn't recognize him.

"Look Kiba, this is the girl we were telling you about!" Well so much for not knowing who he was. Naruto quickly alerted me as to what his name was.

"Huh, what girl?" Kiba said looking at Naruto and I with a confused look on his face.

I was still standing between Naruto and Sasuke when I heard Sasuke faintly murmer. "Idiots"

He might me a smug bastard but he was right. I just nodded my head in agreement.

"You know the one from the raid a few weeks ago!"

"The one with who has 'pink hair'" Kiba said with a silly smile on his face as he made airquotes when he said, 'pink hair.'

While I don't blame him for doubting the facts about the color of my hair I did always hate how it was such a controversial topic. Thankfully I have my hat in place hiding it from judgment.

Not that that lasted long because Naruto quickly snatched it off of my head to prove his point. "See its PINK!"

"Hey what the fuck?!" I exclaimed and quickly reached for Naruto's hand, which was currently holding my hat. I was glaring at both Naruto and his friend Kiba who despite my reaction to Naruto's action was in a bit of awe.

"You're hair is pink! Do you dye it I bet you do, I see you have hair dye in your bag!" He exclaimed while pointing at my bag.

I was about to move the bag up to my chest and run back to my apartment when Sasuke's hand caught my wrist taking the contents of my bag out. "Wow, what the fuck. Stop" I hissed as he held the hair dye bottle inspecting the picture of it. Naruto and Kiba were quick to move next to him and examine it leaving me glaring at the group.

"Sakura why would you dye your hair its so pretty?!" Naruto asked looking upset about it.

I was about to point out that while it was pretty, bright colors were the last thing I needed to bring to combat but Sasuke beat me to it.

"Tch idiot, she wouldn't last a day out there with that hair."

"Hey bastard I wasn't asking you?"

At this point I had, had enough and grabbed the box out of Sasuke's hand. Glaring at them before speaking.

"Look guys, I'm going to go. I don't have time to put up with this." I stated before I turned around and began to walk back to my apartment. I was only about two steps away when Naruto yelled, "Hey Sakura! We're sorry about today…ComThe hospital I was stationed was one of the worst I had been in my entire life we didn't have nearly enough supplies to treat our wounded and beds were very limited. I worked twelve-hour shifts with lousy six-hour breaks in between.

I was currently on my last two hours of my shift and my body could not take in enough caffeine to keep myself awake. I was leaning against the countertop at the nurses' station lazily watching one of the nurses type up what I assume to be a patient report. As she was doing this I tried really hard to resist the urge to yawn but it was almost impossible to do. Once I had yawned the nurse who was typing, with pretty blonde hair and brown eyes, casted me an apologetic look.

"Sorry about that." My hand was at my mouth with a silly smile adoring my face. After a few second I sat down next to the nurse at the computer. After adjusting my doctors coat, I decided that I had enough time to check my email.

The nurse who's tag read 'Cindy' looked over at my screen for a brief second before asking "Waiting for an email Doctor?"

"No not really." I replied. While it would be nice for my family and friends to constantly email me they didn't; they preferred letters as at one point after basic I commented on how nice it was to receive a physical letter from someone rather than just an email. They had taken it as a hint to only send me letters, which despite the time it took for me to receive was my favorite form of communication with them.

With one hand at my mouse and the other supporting my head I was leaning against the countertop reading emails when a particular email caught my eye. It was titled "CHANGE OF BASE" I opened it almost immediately quickly reading it.

MSgt Sakura Haruno,

Due to recent changes in departments you will be now be stationed at Camp Rhino. Please make the necessary adjustments for your departure. Travel information will be linked below.

"Oh. My. God." I could not believe what I had just read. This wasn't making any sense to me. Why was I was going to leave this run down hospital that was lacking doctors. Were there going to be replacement doctors here? Millions of questions instantly ran though my mind regarding this change.

I must have screamed when I read my email because the second I looked up I saw several nurses and a fellow doctor looking at me all with concerned faces.

"Doctor, I asked you if everything was okay?" A nurse with curly hair repeated to me.

"Uhhh,..yeah." My answer didn't satisfy them as they were still giving me the same concerned glances. At that moment I decided that my best option was to lie.

So I tried again "I just got a really bad leg cramp and the pain scared me."

A tried to suppress a grin when I saw the curly haired nurse roll her eyes and turn around to walk away with the other nurses following her down the hallway. Dr. Sato frowned before speaking "Haruno, get your act together." I had to resist the urge to talk back.

"Doctor Haruno?" My head quickly turned to the side where the nurse I was sitting next to had read probably read the email.

"How much did you read?"

"Sorry I read all of it."

Leaning back on the chair I sighed picking out my words carefully for her. "Its okay, lets just keep this between us." Cindy gave me a genuine smile.

"Of course Doctor"

Now that the cat was out of the bag with her and seeing that I my last rounds didn't start for another 20minutes I decided I had enough time to quickly read over my travel details before printing off my last patient chart of the day.

I was currently working on my last patient before finishing my shift and heading off to some much needed sleep. My relocation of base was very startling news that woke me of at the end of the shift but right before my rounds began fatigue was starting to set in again. That email had been sent out three weeks ago leaving me a week before I moved out.

"Well Mr. Smith you seem to be stable enough for us to fly you out to Germany where you can receive proper care." I said giving my patient a soft smile. Jack Smith was only 19 fresh out of school, full of potential, until a bomb took off his legs. He always seemed to be happy despite his current situation, with an appearance matched his attitude, it was bright with his blonde hair and green eyes.

I struggled with patients who lost body limbs, like Jack, because I had enough knowledge and skills to save there limbs most of the times. I was just lacking supplies and equipment, this really wrecked me inside and I often debated on letting the patient know that piece of information. In the end I never told them. After the attack on my squad I had come into more realistic terms of what I was in. I was in war but that didn't make this any easier.

As I was walking out of the room and clocking out my mind couldn't keep from wandering to the events of the attack. No official death count had been published or summary. I do know that there were several others who had survived but most of my squad had been killed.

The guys who I ended up with had vanished just as quickly as they came. Our rescue was so quick and we were all too tired to exchange any information. I don't think that I'll ever see them again.

The days went by very quickly and next thing I knew I was checking into Camp Rhino. At the hospital I was given a bed in the barracks and at Camp Rhino much to my surprise I had a dorm style apartment I could tell that this particular apartment wasn't just for any kind of soldier. Which lead me to further question my position here. I was informed upon arrival that I was going to serving as a field medic. The particular department I was now in, had requested a doctor rather than just a medic for their squad, which did strike me as odd, the hospital I had been working at lacked staff. Out here doctors were scarce so there had to be a very big reason for my change of position.

After organizing my stuff in my new apartment (which wasn't really much just two bags). I figured it would be better if I dyed my hair blonde today so when I met my team tomorrow I wouldn't have to worry about it. Having pink hair always drew unwanted attention that I managed to overcome. I had once sported it long but upon entering the marines it was very clear to me that I would have to dye it.

It wasn't often that I was able to wear civilian clothing so I took the opportunity to slip into my jeans and flip-flops as soon as I had it. I didn't do my laundry before moving so I slipped on a long sleeve t-shirt with the red cross on my arm signaling that I was medic. It was one of the many shirts I got during medic training. Which I was required to attend even though I had just finished my residency days before.

Since this area always had combat going on near by I decided not to test waters so I placed my chin length choppy hair in a plain tan baseball cap before heading off to the shopping market in the camp.

The only place where you could buy goods in the camp was at a small convenience store located near the entrance of the military barracks. Why they allowed soldiers to dye there hair as they please completely boggled my mind. They were very minimalistic when it came to those aspects of society but I wasn't going to complain about it with my given situation.

It took me no time to pick out a blonde dye and pay for it. Upon exciting the shop I noticed a crowd recently formed. I curiously approached it. As I was walking toward it I heard screaming and then I saw the last two people I was expecting to see, two boys, one with blonde hair and the other with black hair, Naruto and Sasuke.

"Bastard I told you that if you took my target I was going to kick you ass!"

"Idiot, if I hadn't incepted when I did your target would have gotten away"

Wondering what it was about I got closer to the front where I could see them more clearly. A chubby brown haired man next to me startled me when out of nowhere he began to speak, "These two always have such great fights good thing they fight about everything."

Glancing up at him I noticed he casually had a bag of chips in his hand that he was eating, how odd.

"Oh do they?" I commented.

"You must be new, everyone knows that they always fight I'm amazed they haven't been court-martialed yet"

I was surprised that he had noticed that I was new right away; he was after all the first person I had talked to. 'Did I really stick out that much even with my hair covered?' I thought to myself.

"Yeah that would be unfortunate." I said after a few seconds returning my attention to the fight.

Now they were throwing a couple punches at each other, saying a few insulting comments.

"You punch me like a girl"

"At least I don't look like a girl you bastard."

I did have to admit they were both great at hand-to-hand combat. You could easily tell that they had years of martial arts below their belts on top of their military training. These guys had been training to fight most of their lives and I didn't know how to feel about that.

I glanced up at the overweight man next to me for a second, which he noticed.

"My name is Choji" He said

"Sakura" I replied with a soft smile holding my hand out to him which he quickly shook with out a hesitation before commenting.

"Medic huh? Good we've been short on them."

This wasn't really new information to me. Everyone was short on medics. "Yeah, I'm sure there are several new ones around."

I was about to ask Choji if he could tell me where the dinning hall was at before I noticed him moving aside at a speed that a man his size would normally not have and then I felt a body hit mine throwing me on the ground where the two idiots were fighting.

Ouch.

All I could do was cover my head securing my hat on me; the last thing I wanted was to make a bigger scene with my ridiculously colored hair.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry!"

"Are you okay?"

"Bastard you should have moved!"

"Idiot, like I could control where I was falling."

I was laying on the floor face down before I directed my gaze upwards to see Naruto with a very concerned look reaching down to help me up and Sasuke with sand on the side of his uniform, 'Well I guess I knew who took me down.' I grimly thought.

"Yeah I'm fine", I said quickly sitting up taking Naruto's hand to help me stand up. As Naruto was pulling me up I noticed his eyes widened.

"SAKURA!, Look bastard its Sakura!" Naruto yelled pointing at me, making me feel slightly awkward.

I glanced at Sasuke offering him a soft smile to acknowledge him, which he did not return, smug bastard.

"Sorry I hit you. Are you alright?" He asked me with an unconcerned and unapologetic voice.

"Yeah."

Looking around I noticed that the crowd was starting to dwindle as the people realized that the fight had ended. There was one man who rather than leaving, like everyone else approached us. I figured they were Naruto's and Sasuke's friend as I didn't recognize him.

"Look Kiba, this is the girl we were telling you about!" Well so much for not knowing who he was. Naruto quickly alerted me as to what his name was.

"Huh, what girl?" Kiba said looking at Naruto and I with a confused look on his face.

I was still standing between Naruto and Sasuke when I heard Sasuke faintly murmer. "Idiots"

He might me a smug bastard but he was right. I just nodded my head in agreement.

"You know the one from the raid a few weeks ago!"

"The one with who has 'pink hair'" Kiba said with a silly smile on his face as he made airquotes when he said, 'pink hair.'

While I don't blame him for doubting the facts about the color of my hair I did always hate how it was such a controversial topic. Thankfully I have my hat in place hiding it from judgment.

Not that that lasted long because Naruto quickly snatched it off of my head to prove his point. "See its PINK!"

"Hey what the fuck?!" I exclaimed and quickly reached for Naruto's hand, which was currently holding my hat. I was glaring at both Naruto and his friend Kiba who despite my reaction to Naruto's action was in a bit of awe.

"You're hair is pink! Do you dye it I bet you do, I see you have hair dye in your bag!" He exclaimed while pointing at my bag.

I was about to move the bag up to my chest and run back to my apartment when Sasuke's hand caught my wrist taking the contents of my bag out. "Wow, what the fuck. Stop" I hissed as he held the hair dye bottle inspecting the picture of it. Naruto and Kiba were quick to move next to him and examine it leaving me glaring at the group.

"Sakura why would you dye your hair its so pretty?!" Naruto asked looking upset about it.

I was about to point out that while it was pretty, bright colors were the last thing I needed to bring to combat but Sasuke beat me to it.

"Tch idiot, she wouldn't last a day out there with that hair."

"Hey bastard I wasn't asking you?"

At this point I had, had enough and grabbed the box out of Sasuke's hand. Glaring at them before speaking.

"Look guys, I'm going to go. I don't have time to put up with this." I stated before I turned around and began to walk back to my apartment. I was only about two steps away when Naruto yelled, "Hey Sakura! We're sorry about today…Come back! Well we'll see you around!"

'Like I'd want that to happen. They're a bunch of assholes.' I thought as I was walking back to my apartment. Once I arrived I saw a few papers had been slipped under my door.

Bending down to pick up it up I realized that they were tomorrow's itinerary, meaning I would meet my squad mates and apparently train with them tomorrow.

I could already tell that it was going to be a long day.

e back! Well we'll see you around!"

'Like I'd want that to happen. They're a bunch of assholes.' I thought as I was walking back to my apartment. Once I arrived I saw a few papers had been slipped under my door.

Bending down to pick up it up I realized that they were tomorrow's itinerary, meaning I would meet my squad mates and apparently train with them.

I could already tell that it was going to be a long day.


End file.
